Blogpost 5: Gossip: Man vs. Woman

                When you look around, you see some persons gossiping at the sari-sari store, road, neighbor’s house and anywhere else. Even when you are at school, you always notice that your classmates are chatting and gossiping around during free time. I had a lot of friends and we also like gossiping. My friends are composed of boys and girls. One day, as I reminisced my high school life, a question bothered me again. Since everybody loves gossiping, this is my question: “Who gossips more, man or woman?” Sounds interesting, right? At first, I thought that it is the woman who really gossips more than man. You also have to admit that we have the same perception. In the first place, this is only an assumption or my opinion.

                  Woman are often stereotyped as famous gossipers and believed that they talk more than men. Many people automatically associate woman when they heard the word “gossip”. Remember the ancient meaning of gossip, from Old English word god-sibb. This term was given to a woman’s close female friend when she gave birth to her child. Eventually, it is related to any close female kinship. As time passed by, gossip earned negative meaning or let’s say negative connotation. Example is a conversation about the other person’s life. It is commonly a rumor and seldom, a fact only. Back to the topic again, you notice that gossip is not specifically denoted to gender ,but nowadays, it became synonymous to woman.

(c) criticallyrated

          Without further ado, I started to search articles and I came across an article entitled “Women vs. Men: Who Gossips More?” by Myra Faye Turner. According to her post, “men gossip as much as women do, particularly on their cell phones.” This research was conducted in United Kingdom about a variety of social topics. The results showed that it is indeed the men who gossip more. Surprisingly, 33% of men gossiped with their cellphones compared to the 26% of women. So don’t assume that when a man is walking around with his cellphone attached to his ear, it is all about business matters but they are more likely gossiping. 

                       It’s kind of a ridiculous thing that men gossip more using their cellphones. I was startled with the survey conducted. For me, it is still possible that the two words can be separated – woman and gossip. If you’re going to ask any man if he gossips, his response will be surely a “No,no!”. Of course, we know that this simply is not true. Men became dishonest when they say that they do not gossip simply because only woman gossips.

                        Back to the article, it also tackles the differences as well as the similarities in the way men and women gossip. It is stated that, “Men and women both seem to talk the same amount of time when they gossip and they also generally talk about the same subjects.” Examples of these are salaries, personal life and others. For their differences, “when men gossip, they talk more about themselves than women do.” On my side, it somehow true because men likes to compare their physical appearance with the other man. They tend to say that he is more handsome and had a muscular body compare to him.

(c) kaizen-azeri

                  I've read a lot of survey and majority says that it is men again who loves gossip. According to the poll, one of 10 men likes to dish the dirt about other people compared to 4% of women. Additional information was given in the poll; more men are guilty spreading rumors or gossips than women. On the contrary, one psychologist said that women gossip more than men do. Men only call it “networking”. According to the the psychologist, men likes to talk who is up and who is down while women are more interested with who is in and who has merit. All these information made me so confused but it really helps me a lot with regards to my topic. There are different opinions, assumptions and conclusions about who gossips more. When I get tired of reading surveys, I almost decided to publish my blogpost but there’s something in my mind that persists to search more articles. I thought that I’m done and has done writing all the things I need to say.

                  Fortunately, I saw an article entitled “Gossip brings men together, tears women apart” by Jayne Augoye. I got so curious with the title itself. I read the article and by far, I finally got a good answer. I must say that it added a new twist in my topic. According to the article, a new study was carried out by some psychology lecturers at a particular university in Western Canada. They classified the effect of gossip between men and women. For men, “chatter tends to make males closer” whereas for women, “it can tear female friends apart.” Men tend to chat about shared activities such as playing sports compared to women who talk more about one’s physical appearance that can threaten their friendship.

(c) frankiejohn

     The way men and women gossip is not simple as talking about football versus talking about shopping. There are lots of differences. The friendship between male is more characterized in engaging group activities. So, it can enhance the bond between individuals within the group. Since female friendships run deeper, gossip may have an opposite effect. It can be more of a threat in female friendships than male friendships. Predictably, both of them gossip in rather different ways. Gossiping about physical appearance was found to be more prevalent among the girls. One poll stated that men spend an average of 76 minutes of gossiping to their friends and colleagues compared to just 56 minutes of women. 

                     On the other hand, men are not as bad as women but they are worse. Just because men love a bit of scandal and do anything to be the center of attraction while women love to talk about news. Men’s discussions are all about the happenings in their work whereas women are fond of talking about celebrity lifestyles and other people.

                    “People can use gossip to drag someone under the bus, or it can help establish trust in someone. But it’s worth being careful. If someone is always giving you the dirt on other people, then you’re part of the mix when she talks to someone else. Be careful how much information you share.” - Andrea Syrtash

                     On my opinion, it is better to tell things which are facts and be discreet to those who you open up to, the one you can really confide and of course, credible. Refrain from spreading untruthful gossips because if we used to do that, we will find it difficult to stop doing those things. 

(c) bestquotesaboutlife

                       Gossiping is such an enormous thing for both parties. They discuss different things and only agree on one thing- talking with friends, colleagues to make them feel they are belong. All in all, we can’t say who gossip more though we have lots of survey because it is still not enough and sufficient. The debate between men and women who gossip more may not come to an end. Gossip is malicious if you tend to spread rumors and your intention is to hurt others. It is inevitable and a vital mode of communication. We all seem to be doing it and loving every minute of it, but one thing I can assure is, as long as humans live here in Earth, the gossip will continue to exist. Another thing, I will leave a question for you, who do you think gossips more? The decision is yours!